Gaping pothole in Derbyshire town reappears six weeks after council repair

The fissure on Bolsover Market Place, surrounded by worn pieces of stone chipping, was filled in just six weeks ago by Derbyshire County Council. However the patch of road covering an area of around five feet was photographed with new pock marks this week by a passing motorist.

in January, after the large pothole was filled in, drivers complained about the quality of road repairs in the area. Carl Siddall, ironically, told Derbyshire Times he thought the mended gash would soon open up again.

He said: “The repairs completed are not fit for purpose. The hole is filled in, but for how long? There are parts around it that are not levelled and I think this will soon break up again.”

Responding to the outcry last month, the county council confirmed the pothole fix was a ‘reactive repair’ and the road would be fully resurfaced "over the next few months”.

Speaking about the Bolsover road, the council spokesperson added: “This area of road is on our capital programme to be fully resurfaced over the next few months, which is why this repair was done just to make the area safe until then.

“We have put extra resources into our pothole repairs teams and are fixing hundreds of potholes a day. We have also started a planned additional road patching programme to carry out larger patch resurfacing of many hot spot areas to try to prevent potholes where we can.”

Commenting on the reappearance of the pothole this week and plans for full resurfacing, a spokesperson for Derbyshire County Council said: “Work to fully resurface the road is due to start toward the end of February and into March – this will be weather permitting but has been programmed for those weeks.

“The recent bad weather has affected previous temporary repairs to the road so we are due to go out as soon as possible to carry out a safety repair on the pothole in advance of the resurfacing work.”